The relationships between the use of smart mobile technology, safety knowledge and propensity to follow safe practices at work

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between the use of smart technology (mobile phones) and the implicit (tacit) and explicit safety knowledge of employees and their propensity to follow safe practices at work. A survey was performed with seven constructs: (a) use of mobile technology; (b) tacit safety knowledge; (c) explicit safety knowledge of unsafe behaviors; (d) attitudes toward safety: emotional aspects; (e) safety culture: behavioral and psychological aspects of work; (f) safety culture: aspects of work; (g) safety culture: regulations at work. Workers from three manufacturing companies located in southeastern Poland completed a paper-based survey. The results revealed that using mobile technology positively influenced the explicit safety knowledge of employees, as well as their assessed safety culture, in terms of behavioral aspects and their attitudes toward safety expressed through the psychological aspects of safety culture.

Keywords:

• mobile technology
• use of smartphones
• safety
• knowledge management
• safe work practices
• structural equation modeling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was partially supported by the Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute (CIOP-PIB), Poland [grant number: IV.P.09].